How I came to Germany – Germany part 1

Dear all,

today, I am bringing you part 1 of my ‘Germany’ series. It will be about my path to here in Germany and how it all went down in the past nine years.

To start us off, I have moved here when I was 22 from my home country Croatia. At that point, I was without job for two full years. No matter on how many jobs I’ve applied to, I have not been able to land one and trust me, I’ve applied for everything. As I was browsing job offers on the job center’s website, I have saw a small ad about Germany’s job center looking for trainees in Germany. I’ve read what it had to say and applied the next day. I had nothing to lose. The worst thing that could happen was that they won’t either reply or that they will turn me down. I applied for to be a hairstylist trainee, something I wanted to do when I was younger.

But I got a positive reply, inviting me to an interview in Rijeka, a town on northern part of Adria’s cost. The interview was done by few employees from Germany’s job center. I used to learn German in the high school so I offered to do an interview in my broken German which they were amazed about. We said goodbye with them saying that they liked me and will provide my information to the hair salon. The group of us from Split sat together and we went on a hunt for a language school that will provide us with German classes as those were a must and paid by job center.

Few weeks passed by and I was invited to Germany for a job interview with a hair salon. It was in Schwarzkopf Akademie at Alster in Hamburg. I have been to Hamburg before and I really liked the town. The job interview was unlike anything I’ve tried before. I was one of the first people to arrive and they gave us a paper, sat three of us down in a small room where we had to draw a hairstyle that was hanging on the wall. Mind you, even if my mom is a painter, I didn’t get those genes at all. I did my best and was one of the first people to do the interview. I tried my luck in German but I was too nervous so we switched to English. This job interview took hours and I was sure that I won’t make it.

But Universe was on my side and after some weeks of waiting, I got the offer for the traineeship along with my contract. I signed it all off and sent it back but now the search for the flat and so on started. I contacted the family of my ex friend that lived in Reinbek and asked for help. Instead, they offered me to live with them and pay them monthly rent which was smaller than any flat. I gratefully accepted it.

The time was passing by so fast, I was confused and lost most of the time during that period. I had German classes from Monday to Friday, 8am – noon. I tried to pack and decide what do I bring with me. The contract was for 3 years. Will I stay? Will I go back after 3 years? No one knew, not even me.

29. July 2014, Airport Split, my suitcase, laptop bag, my family and me at the airport. I was saying goodbye to them, not knowing when will be the next time I will see them. Especially as my sister was expecting her first child (that came on Earth just few days later). It was hard, I was crying while saying goodbye, I was crying while sitting in the airplane watching my home country getting smaller and smaller as the airplane rose higher. I was excited but also terrified about the future that was awaiting me in this big foreign country.

Two hours later, I’ve landed at Hamburg airport and my adventure started.

To be continued.

Don’t let anyone dull your sparkle,
Ana